


Enthalpy of Hydration

by bemusedlybespectacled (ardentintoxication)



Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Cuddling & Snuggling, F/M, Hurt/Comfort, Iron Man 3 Spoilers, Missing Scene, No Sex, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, Quadruple Drabble, Showers, and a little bit, subtle subtle foreshadowing of the movie because I am the sneakiest motherfucker
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-05-07
Updated: 2013-05-07
Packaged: 2017-12-10 16:06:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 450
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/787902
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ardentintoxication/pseuds/bemusedlybespectacled
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tony joins Pepper in the shower.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Enthalpy of Hydration

The shower is hot; just on this side of scalding, the way Pepper likes it, and normally he'd turn it down some but right now, it's good. The pressure is high and the water is hot and the lights are turned up bright and it's perfect, it's the exact opposite of space, because space is cold and dark and pulls at you from the outside and _fuck_  he isn't suposed to think about space when he's with Pepper.

They're the same height when they both have their shoes off. She stands on tiptoe, rubs shampoo into his hair. It even smells warm: vanilla instead of her usual mint. He bends a little into her touch, away from the stream, and normally he'd shrug off the tears as soap in his eye, water from the shower, but he doesn't need to do that with her and so he doesn't. He rinses. She spends more time massaging his scalp than putting in conditioner. He rinses again. Every rinse is like reminding himself where he is.

"Do you-?" she asks, hands hovering lower.

"I can't-" he says, and his voice breaks a bit. "Not right now, I just-" And how fucking _pathetic_ is that?

"Okay," she says. "Okay."

He moves out from under the water, gives her room. She washes her own hair with a brisk efficiency, rinses with her head tilted back and her eyes open, finger-combs the conditioner in under the stream and works out each knot impatiently.

When she comes back to him, lets him touch her, she's warm, warmer almost than the water, her skin pink from the heat.

"What do you need?"

He doesn't answer. He just presses his face into her shoulder, which really shouldn't be cuddly - Pepper is way too pointy to be cuddly - and yet somehow is the most comfortable place in the world. She strokes his hair. The water doesn't get cold. His shoulders stopped shaking a while ago and he didn't notice until just now.

After few moments of deep breaths, he looks up. "Maybe we should-" He gestures towards the shower curtain.

"Yeah," she says. "That's fine."

The bathroom door is closed, the air still full of steam. "Sir," says JARVIS, with a delicacy usually reserved for especially binge-y drinking binges and _sir shall i try miss potts_ and _fuck_ he was trying not to think about that, "would you like the thermostat to be turned up?"

"Yeah, that might be good," Tony says, and between being swathed in towels and slowly kissing each other they somehow end up on the floor, on the bed, Pepper's hair still wet (she'll complain about it in the morning) and Tony feeling, however fleetingly, safe.

**Author's Note:**

> I swear to God this was going to have sex, but by the time I got around to writing it, logic brain was completely at odds with porny brain and decided to take over. Fuck you, logic brain.


End file.
